Students who plagiarise essays from the internet could soon have their cheating exposed, if a scheme announced by universities yesterday takes off.

A campaign for the return of treasure looted by British soldiers in Ethiopia more than 130 years ago suffered a blow when organisers were told that four valuable manuscripts were unlikely to be returned.

More teens have underage sex

WITH THE death of Lionel Daiches, Scotland has lost a distinguished Queen's Counsel and an outstanding orator. He was gifted with a rich and resonant voice; words came easily to him from an early age. His eloquence and ability to hold the attention of an audience in student debates at the university union and at the Diagnostic Society of Edinburgh University are still remembered.

ANARCHISTS ARE targeting Railtrack, said a report in the Times, "and hope to play on the company's perceived unpopularity after the Paddington disaster". I was not at all sure what the Times's reporter meant by "perceived unpopularity". That everyone knew how unpopular Railtrack was? Or that people generally thought it was, but that he himself did not necessarily share their view? Perceived speaks with a mealy mouth. To say, as the Times seemed to be saying here, that "people think it is unpopular" is to commit a thumping tautology, since the popularity of a thing depends, by definition, on what people think of it. Or perhaps the Times meant that the anarchists, at any rate, perceived Railtrack as unpopular. That's the trouble with passives. "It was thought that the plan was too risky." Who thought that? Passives pass the buck.

HAVE YOU heard of the Golden Fleece Award? It was begun in 1975 by a US Senator from Wisconsin called William Proxmire, who gave the accolade each month for the most self-evidently wasteful piece of government-funded spending. For example, in 1978 he gave one to the Office of Education for spending $219,592 to develop a curriculum to teach college students how to watch television. Many went to pointless research projects, such as a Golden Fleece Award to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a $25,000 grant to study why people cheat and act rudely on Virginia tennis courts.

DOES BEING Scottish make you naturally friendly, generous, good- looking and intelligent? Or is Scottishness more about having a wee pinched face, an aggressive nature and a drink problem?

THE SPACE Shuttle's ultra-sophisticated radar has detected a network of medieval roads on a Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides. It is the first time such a method has uncovered a British archaeological site.

THE FUTURE of Dr Robin Pearson, the lecturer accused of being a East German secret service agent, is to be discussed by Hull University, amid claims that universities across Britain were "riddled" with spies during the 1970s.

DOCTORS WHO play God and assume they know what is best for their patients must change, the British Medical Journal says today. Old-style medical paternalism, immortalised by Dr Finlay of the television series, is out, and a new style of "partnership" between doctor and patient is now the gold standard.

DOCTORS WHO play God and assume they know what is best for their patients must change, the British Medical Journal says today.

The soaring number of MBA courses means you need to do your research before applying.

ROBERT BROWN was one of the outstanding plant physiologists of the 20th century, his field of expertise being the physiology of growth and differentiation - the process by which cells take on different functions.

A SECOND group of university students in Scotland has been disciplined after being accused of cheating.